Dogs unleashed on female polio worker in DI Khan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN - A lady polio vaccinator was critically injured when she was bitten by dogs unleashed on her in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan city, reported a private TV channel on Monday.The female polio worker was on her door to door campaign to vaccinate children against polio virus when few male members of the locality unleashed their dogs on her.The woman was critically injured and shifted to district headquarters hospital.Anti-polio campaigns have been targeted by militants since US intelligence officials used a fake vaccination programme to help in their hunt for Osama bin Laden in 2011. Under cover of the programme, the CIA sought to collect DNA samples from relatives of the Al-Qaeda leader to verify his presence in a compound in Abbottabad.Since July 2012, at least 22 polio workers have been killed.The polio campaign has a history of controversy in Pakistan. Some mullahs have preached against it, claiming falsely that the oral vaccine leaves Pakistani children sterile.Last year, a Taliban commander announced a ban on polio vaccines for children in the region as long as the United States continued its campaign of drone strikes.Polio, which can cause permanent paralysis in hours, remains endemic only in Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 06-May-2014 here.